Strange Luck
General forum
Posted on Aug. 16, 2013, 5:34 p.m. by Fleetfiend
Have you had any strange luck in MtG? Whether it be consistently bad draws in a well-build deck, or a common that you for some reason could never pull out of a pack?
I have two instances. First off, I've been playing magic for around two years now, which isn't all that long; but as soon as I started, I was addicted, and spend something like 60% of my money gained at the time on packs. I would estimate somewhere around $1000 has been spend on cards. However... I pulled my VERY FIRST PLANESWALKER... just yesterday. First one. Ever.
I also managed to pull two Geist of Saint Traft and a foil Falkenrath Aristocrat out of a single fat pack. Right before a house fire. Go figure.
the3rdH0kage says... #6
uuummm, Geist of Saint Traft and Falkenrath Aristocrat are from different sets, so how did you pull them from the same fat pack??
August 16, 2013 5:48 p.m.
Fleetfiend says... #7
the3rdH0kage Oop, your right. I think I got the aristocrat out of a few boosters that were opened as he same time as the fat pack, my bad there. I know the Geists came out of the same one though. Doh!
August 16, 2013 5:53 p.m.
Absinthman says... #8
Well I have a fun story. When Gatecrash got released, I missed the Saturday pre-releases and could only go on Sunday. When we were about to start, I noticed people around me talking about how they wondered if anybody's gonna pull that "mythic uncommon". Apparently, for the whole Saturday, nobody had seen Rapid Hybridization , hence "mythic". I opened my packs and found a foil one, thus grabbing attention all around.
August 16, 2013 5:53 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #9
Here's another strange story. Every time I do a pre-release event, I tend to pull THE best stuff in the set .3.
August 16, 2013 5:56 p.m.
cartwheelnurd says... #10
opened a box of Avacyn Restored and I didn't get any Cloudshift s
August 16, 2013 6:04 p.m.
CaveShinobi says... #11
When I played with my previous deck, I had 24 lands and 4 Crypt Ghast s. I always got either mana flooded or screwed. Then I cut to 22 lands and never had those issues again. Including no screw. Ever.
August 16, 2013 6:23 p.m.
SwiftDeath says... #13
My sac deck plays very consistently but for some reason in the last few months I have not been able win any games because my deck won't let me have lands or other cards when I need them. This isn't like I need to draw this or I'm dead next turn either. It is okay I need Grave Pact in the next 10 turns to take control of the board I have my sac combo on board and Im scrying 2-5 a turn with Viscera Seer after turn 3. I scryed more then half my deck and didn't see a single grave pact and lost because of it. The next game I will see 2 mana all game after scrying 4 times. The next game I will scry as much as I can and still end up with nothing but mana for 6 draws in a row. Before this my deck would always play the way I wanted it to with decent mana drops and consistent plays but It hasn't been able to do so in a long time.
August 16, 2013 6:24 p.m.
I wouldn't say I've ever had unusual bad luck (then again I usually see those moments as learning experiences if it's in a game of mtg) but I have had numerous amounts of random good luck. Probably my best good luck moment was when I was handed the perfect golgari pool (without being so perfect that it would make people think I cheated to get that pool) at the PTQ I made 2nd in. I have also had quite the number of great top decks, often I've drawn a card that I've really needed the turn I need it the most and it's usually a one of in my deck.
August 16, 2013 7:37 p.m.
I would say that I am pretty unlucky.
- I know that 35 lands is a little low for EDH, but there are times when I mulligan 3 or 4 times in a row. The time I get land, I then only draw land (pretty much) for that game. I then pile-shuffled and it just happened to make a stack of nine lands in a row. Then I set that deck aside, play a different one, come back to it, and no longer have the problem. For this reason I build resilience to such luck in decks in the form of lower mana curves than usual for EDH, the use of mana rocks, and the use of mana dorks.
- I often have an opponent draw that rare one-of they needed to beat me in a game. For this reason I have started to like to hold a counterspell or a card like Silence if I can.
- I have frequently found myself just 1 mana shy of winning, and proceeded to lose during the next person's turn. This could again, be a land shortage problem. But I am talking about having 10 available but needing 11 or something of that scale. It feels more like a luck thing.
- Sometimes I do just happen to have that one card that stops a person from winning and lets me win instead. But when that happens it never happens from top-decking. I can't think of one example. For this reason, I often hold removals or graveyard recoveries or counterspells for those times when it is really needed. I also hold onto direct damage spells and things until I can do alot of damage with them since I have grown to assume that I won't just draw one later after I am all set up for it (no matter how many of them may be in the deck).
- I never get "god hands" and I really do have to use mulligan rules a lot to get enough land and to ditch the late game finishers I have a tendency to draw in my opening hand. To some extent we create our own luck. I could possibly avoid a lot of this by putting more land in, I suppose - but I'm not convinced. Instead I find myself making careful mulligan decisions and holding on to things for when they will have more impact - I just don't think I can rely on luck (in fact, I should factor in the opposite when making decisions - if they could have that one card in the game that stops my deck in their opening hand I should expect that they probably will and have an alternate plan ready - as well as a nice set of answers for it).Another reason for this is probably the way I build decks to have early and late game strategies. It is probably alot to expect to be drawing the early stuff instead of the late stuff - or at least that makes it more likely to need to mulligan compared to a deck that just has all high cmc good stuff and cheap ramp spells (I see a lot of EDH decks like this).
August 16, 2013 7:58 p.m.
I drafted 2 Pack Rat s before. Can you say, Mulligan? Lol
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #2
I guess that must have....burned xD
A strange instance for me is my Death by the Headcrusher! deck has 25 lands. Almost every time I got mana screwed. No idea how or why. Both here and Cockatrice it happened.
I have more strange pulls and stories with Naruto than I do Magic.
August 16, 2013 5:38 p.m.